Joseph Conrad 
Heart of Darkness 

In Heart of Darkness, Polish-British author Joseph Conrad deploys atmosphere, ambiguity and nuance to spin a languid tale of intrigue and madness in late 19th-century Colonial Africa. The story’s narrator, Marlow, tells of a trip up the Congo River to rescue a legendary ivory trader, Kurtz, from a mysterious illness. Considered Conrad’s masterpiece, and one of the greatest novels of the 20th century (it was written and serialized in 1899 but not published in book form until 1902), others have condemned the dehumanizing depictions of Africans as racist and outdated.

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Joseph Conrad (1857 – 1924) is regarded as one of the greatest novelists of the English language. He wrote stories and novels, many with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an impassive, inscrutable universe. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters have influenced many authors, including T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, and Graham Greene. Many films have been adapted from, or inspired by, Conrad’s works, including Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, which was inspired by Heart of Darkness.